


Solanum Dulcamara

by agirlnamedtruth



Category: The Borgias (2011)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Incest, POV Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-07
Updated: 2013-06-07
Packaged: 2017-12-14 06:46:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/833939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/agirlnamedtruth/pseuds/agirlnamedtruth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loving her is bittersweet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Solanum Dulcamara

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'bittersweet' at [1drabble](http://1drabble.livejournal.com/profile). Takes place during 3x04. Title taken from the plant, the common name is the bittersweet nightshade.

Love was bittersweet. She, his love, herself was sweet, so sweet that it came out of his mouth easier than any learned prayer, _my sweet sister_ but those very words made him bitter, his sister, no matter how sweet he thought her, she was his sister. And so he’d resigned himself to the fact that such a hunger could never be sated, his sweet tooth never given in to. 

But now the fruit had been tasted, offered up to him, honey like the shade of her hair, so sweet on his tongue, in her kisses, in the most private of places where no brother should venture. But she’d been so sweet, begging, pleading, so close to tears at the prospect of being rejected again, her heart of the verge of breaking because he had promised to love her above all others and love her always. He could never deny such a love, so love her he did, tasting that fruit like the original sin that it was.

And now he was bitter, setting aside such an addiction as her for the cold prospect of what was right, what was expected of him and of her. She looks at him like she knows, he won’t give her up, he won’t live with the bitter taste of denial for long, he will want her saccharine on his lips again. Perhaps those are her thoughts, perhaps they are his, their minds always connected, made even worse by the joining of their bodies. Where does brother end and sister begin? He no longer knows and he can’t drive the image from his mind either.

“Come back soon,” she says, words that are bitter and sad, his heart spoken in her voice. Come back soon, he hears a temptation instead, come back soon for another taste. Her hand hovers on his thigh, too briefly, taking in some of his bitterness as her own and moving her touch to his arm instead, more sisterly that way. Come back soon, he thinks, or don’t leave at all, stay, drink in sweetness forever like one of the bees in the papal gardens, forever drinking nectar and surrendering the honey.

He takes her arm away, cutting himself off, his thoughts going sour like lemons. He could not trust himself around her now; he could not look upon her with innocent, brotherly eyes. He had to leave or risk scandal and ignominy. He would leave; he had no choice, go now to France. But he would come back soon, like Adam, unable to rid himself of the knowledge of her, unable to stop loving her, Lucrezia, such a _sweet_ sister to a _bitter_ brother.


End file.
